Thank you to all who completed the survey regarding your experience with the CCAP transition to Benefind earlier this year. Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) received 157 responses, which were aggregated and shared with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Division of Child Care (keeping specific providers anonymous). Your input was very helpful and used to identify problems and develop a list of suggestions for how to address them.

4-C, KYA, and KY’s Voice for Early Childhood representative, Children, Inc., met with representatives from the Cabinet to seek resolutions for the concerns you helped identify. They were open to feedback and shared that they are aware of the problems. They have heard from providers and know how frustrated they are. The Division of Child Care (DCC) has already implemented some changes and has requested changes that require computer programming updates from the company that built and maintains Benefind. They are willing to listen to what providers say and work with them to resolve the issues.

Based on our discussion with DCC, please note the following:

Providers can be compensated for care that was provided because of late notices of terminations or other reasons related to the transition to Benefind.

There are specialized staff who can talk to providers about issues such as not receiving payment for care provided, verifying a child has an active enrollment, and co-pay information. To speak with these specialists, providers should call the Division of Child Care at 844-209-2657. Please note that these workers have been advised as to what information can be shared with providers. DCC acknowledges that providers may not have been able to receive this information when they used this number previously.

When you call, make sure you have the needed information at hand including: parent’s name, child’s name(s), dates of service, the reason for reimbursement owed (eg. termination notice was received late; signed certificate was sent in for this child; CPS said that authorization was received for this child; etc.) and any documents that can help support each case.

The Division of Child Care is working to update the current portal used to submit reimbursement claims to allow providers to download certificates. This is one of the fixes that requires computer programming updates to the system, but once in place, it will shorten the amount of time it takes to process new enrollments. This should be launched sometime this spring.

Thank you again to those who completed the survey for taking the time to advocate for yourself and your families. Kentucky’s Voice for Early Childhood is an independent advocacy group. 4-C, along with our KY’s Voice partners, work to improve the child care system for children, parents and providers by ensuring their voices are heard. If you continue to face issues, we encourage you to call the Division of Child Care at 844-209-2657. We plan to follow up with you and other providers in the coming weeks to learn whether issues have been resolved.

How do we foster learning in a way that values play and the interests of the child? How do we encourage imagination and open-ended play?

This is what early childhood educators from Sacred Heart Preschool explored during their two day onsite professional development opportunity led by 4-C that focused on the Reflective Teaching Cycle of Provocation – Exploration – Documentation – Reflection. The educators were invited to play with loose part provocations using common classroom or household items, and as they explored, their interactions were documented through photographs. The next day, educators used the photographs to reflect on and discuss what happened and what skills were used such as engineering, sorting and cooperative play. This process also helped them identify potential interests to expand on and provided insight on how to extend the learning with new materials to add in the future.

One educator reported that she wanted to “everyday be more conscious of letting children play and letting them take risks. I want to set up more invitations to play with real life materials.” Another said “I will loosen the reigns and allow more freedom in my classroom and focus on learning through the process.” This Reflective Teaching Cycle is essential to fostering a learning environment for children in which they are free to experiment, explore their own ideas and become independent learners.

On Saturday, October 14, join us for a special Six Hour Saturday present in Spanish! Two 3-hour classes will be offered for a total of six hours of professional development.

Communicating with Multicultural Families – Communicating with families from cultures different from our own can be a challenge. This session will introduce you to methods of engaging and respectful communication with all of the families at your center.

Building Relationships and Supportive Environments at Your Center – This session will demonstrate how small changes in the classroom and center environment can support positive relationships between children, families, and staff.

Today is Give For Good Louisville, our city’s biggest day of giving. If you were at 4th Street Live! today for the rally you might have enjoyed our play dough invitation. Below is the recipe so that you can make some with your children, grandchildren, or someone else you love.

If you haven’t already donated, 4-C would appreciate your support! You can visit our donation page by clicking this link: Donate Now. Don’t miss your chance to Be A Force For Good!

The Board of Directors of Community Coordinated Child Care, Inc. (4-C) is pleased to announce the appointment of current interim Director, Cori Gadansky, as Executive Director effective August 21, 2017. The Board’s action comes with the fullest confidence that Cori will continue to be an excellent steward of 4-C’s mission and a voice for children in our community. The Board recognizes that Cori is a leader who brings experience, excitement and a clear vision of where we are headed as an organization. We look forward to continuing on our path of positive growth for many years to come with Cori leading the charge.

The 2nd Annual Excellence Academy

Community Conference

The Heart Centered Teaching Institute

ABOUT THE INSTITUTE

The Heart Centered Teaching Institute is the 2nd annual community conference presented by the Excellence Academy. It is an opportunity to examine teaching through connection and relationship and to learn how to really see children as they are through observation, documentation, and reflective practice. What is the process of planning child-led experiences? How do you teach with open-ended materials, honor the interests of the child and still prepare them for school? How can we transform our thinking from traditional ways of viewing children and their families? How do we teach from both our hearts and our heads? Join us to discover a different way of working and being with children. Learn from local teachers and coaches who practice heart centered teaching. Be inspired to embrace the whole child and rediscover your own joy of learning.

For the past several years the Excellence Academy has been working with a select group of child care centers to learn and implement best practices in their programs. We strive to help teachers, children, and administrators to love learning, build communities, and transform lives. We are inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to learning and have a strong focus on the development of the whole child. Excellence Academy educators practice heart-centered teaching and believe learning should be play-based and child-led. We use observation, documentation and reflective practice to support the natural curiosity that all children possess. We embrace joy as the heart of the learning process to engage the curious minds of children and adults. We continue to receive ongoing affirmation and research supports our practice that children learn best through play. We have become researchers alongside the child taking their curiosities, interests and thoughts into perspective in everything we do. It has definitely proven to be a positive influence in and out of the classroom for both the children and educators. Through intentional observations, educators can learn about the individual child while building genuine relationships to support a healthy social emotional foundation of the child. Please join us as we visit the process of planning through reflective thinking and what the first steps are in doing this.

This opportunity is available for the low cost of $5 per participant. Directors are strongly encouraged to attend this professional development event along with their staff.

Institute Highlights include:

Keynote Speaker: Julianne Wurm

Sessions:

Moving from Head to Heart-Centered Teaching

Offering Materials & Observing with Joy

Making Meaning from What We See

Teacher Reflection

Breakout Session with Julianne Wurm

Breakfast and Lunch are included as well as optional time to explore the Kentucky Science Center after the conference.

About the Keynote Speaker – Julianne Wurm

Julianne has over 20 years of experience in education, specifically curriculum and instruction. Julianne lived and worked in Italy and researched within the schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, and is the author of 2 books on her work there. The best-selling, Working in the Reggio Way and its follow up, More Workingin the Reggio Way are both written as practical guides geared towards teachers. Her research has also been featured on the Katie Couric Show and published in the Harvard Business Review, CNN, and educational journals.

Ms. Wurm is an experienced qualitative and quantitative researcher and loves to ask and answer questions, drilling down on data for unique insights. Julianne has led global initiatives that spanned across 60 countries and conducted large-scale international research projects.

Ms. Wurm has worked as both a teacher and professional developer in under-resourced schools in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco and was a member of Teach for America. She has also worked as an instructor at Columbia University.

Ms. Wurm holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from California State University, Chico. She earned her MA in curriculum design and EdM in early childhood education from Teachers College at Columbia University, where she also completed her EdD.